Homebrew Windows 95 on NDS ?

[livetek]

Hi All,

After trying Windows 3.0a on NDS with DSx86, i want to try Win 95.
Why i have this idea ? Because Windows 95 need only 4 MB (8-16 MB recommended) of Ram and i have a Supercard Mini SD with 32mb of Ram to test this.
Explain me please how to do this, this is really possible ? I know it's possible on the PSP, why not on the DS ?
Win95 specs: http://www.theosfiles.com/os_windows/ospg_w95.htm
Win 3.1 specs: http://www.theosfiles.com/os_windows/ospg_w3.htm

Thanks you

 

[Xenon++]

Due to the memory usage of DSx86 itself, only 3.5MB allowed.
Anyway NDS has very slow CPU so Win32(s) will run very slow even if possible.

 

[twiztidsinz]

FYI... Flash Memory =/= RAM

 

[livetek]

Due to the memory usage of DSx86 itself, only 3.5MB allowed.
Anyway NDS has very slow CPU so Win32(s) will run very slow even if possible.

Yes but i think DSx86 will use in his next version ExRam of Slot 2 to use 8/16/32mb.
I know for the CPU but i think it's not a very big problem if the most important work (Win95).

twiztidsinz => You say Flash Memory =/= Ram but how many Mb need W95 to work for flash memory ?

 

[Rydian]

Windows 95 will work just fine with a few hundred megs of space.

The problem is RAM, as was said before.

 

[livetek]

Windows 95 will work just fine with a few hundred megs of space.

The problem is RAM, as was said before.

Ok but if you have an ExRam or SCDSTwo it will work correctly no? My old laptop worked perfectly with 64mb with W98. On the other side, we must ask to the author of DSx86 to release an update of his HB to be able to use Exram.

 

[raulpica]

The DSTwo version MIGHT support it.

You'll have to wait for that. Which, by the way, should come out in the near future.

 

[Rydian]

The author will need to specifically program it to use one of those devices.

 

[0ddity]

Won't happen.

DSx86 only emulates an 80186 CPU, which is 8 MHz, Win 95 requires a 80386 minimum, which ranged from 12-40 mhz. A 80486 was recommended, which ran from 16 to 100 Mhz.

 

[Bunie]

Won't happen.

DSx86 only emulates an 80186 CPU, which is 8 MHz, Win 95 requires a 80386 minimum, which ranged from 12-40 mhz. A 80486 was recommended, which ran from 16 to 100 Mhz.

Don't forget to mention RAM xD

 

[twiztidsinz]

Due to the memory usage of DSx86 itself, only 3.5MB allowed.
Anyway NDS has very slow CPU so Win32(s) will run very slow even if possible.

Yes but i think DSx86 will use in his next version ExRam of Slot 2 to use 8/16/32mb.
I know for the CPU but i think it's not a very big problem if the most important work (Win95).

twiztidsinz => You say Flash Memory =/= Ram but how many Mb need W95 to work for flash memory ?

A 32GB MiniSD isn't going to make one bit of difference because, as I said, Flash Memory IS NOT RAM.
While you CAN use disk space as 'virtual memory' it is too slow to be used as primary RAM.

As a comparison, a good MicroSDHC card (Class 6) has 6MB/s write speed and 12MB/s Read speed.
DDR2-SDRAM (relatively old, but admittedly not as old as Windows 95) has a speed of 3200 MB/s.

DDR-2SDRAM is 266.67 times faster than a MiniSD or MicroSD card.



MiniSD and MicroSD/HC Read Speeds taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroSDHC#Comparisons on the "Max Transfer" line, 8Mbits = 1MBytes, so 100Mb = 12.5MB
MicroSDHC Write Speeds are based on their Class Rating and is directly equal to MB/s, so a Class 6 = 6MB/s Write Speed.
DDR2-SDRAM speeds taken from the second paragraph of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM "Thus with a memory clock frequency of 100 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM gives a maximum transfer rate of 3200 MB/s."

 

[Chase-san]

The best you could hope for is windows 3.1. Which is generally just a really fancy DOS front end. Even if windows 95 was able to run, don't expect to do anything else on it (if you we're thinking of such). My old 486 was nice and super slow with 95 on it. I had 12mb of ram.

 

[livetek]

Ok, Thanks for your answer all.
I will wait a new release of the DSx86 Homebrew and ask to the author if he can use this new features later...

 

[Jamstruth]

Due to the memory usage of DSx86 itself, only 3.5MB allowed.
Anyway NDS has very slow CPU so Win32(s) will run very slow even if possible.

Yes but i think DSx86 will use in his next version ExRam of Slot 2 to use 8/16/32mb.
I know for the CPU but i think it's not a very big problem if the most important work (Win95).

twiztidsinz => You say Flash Memory =/= Ram but how many Mb need W95 to work for flash memory ?

A 32GB MiniSD isn't going to make one bit of difference because, as I said, Flash Memory IS NOT RAM.
While you CAN use disk space as 'virtual memory' it is too slow to be used as primary RAM.

As a comparison, a good MicroSDHC card (Class 6) has 6MB/s write speed and 12MB/s Read speed.
DDR2-SDRAM (relatively old, but admittedly not as old as Windows 95) has a speed of 3200 MB/s.

DDR-2SDRAM is 266.67 times faster than a MiniSD or MicroSD card.



MiniSD and MicroSD/HC Read Speeds taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroSDHC#Comparisons on the "Max Transfer" line, 8Mbits = 1MBytes, so 100Mb = 12.5MB
MicroSDHC Write Speeds are based on their Class Rating and is directly equal to MB/s, so a Class 6 = 6MB/s Write Speed.
DDR2-SDRAM speeds taken from the second paragraph of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM "Thus with a memory clock frequency of 100 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM gives a maximum transfer rate of 3200 MB/s."

Uhm... We've had Slot-2 RAM for years now. He wasn't saying his MiniSD was working as RAM he was saying that the Supercard MiniSD (a slot 2 card) has 32mb of RAM within it. The RAM is relatively slow but it IS there.

 

[0ddity]

Uhm... We've had Slot-2 RAM for years now. He wasn't saying his MiniSD was working as RAM he was saying that the Supercard MiniSD (a slot 2 card) has 32mb of RAM within it. The RAM is relatively slow but it IS there.

Irrelevent. dsx86 only emulates the 80186 CPU, Win 95 requires minimum of a 80386 to run, I doubt the DS is fast enough to emulate that.

 

[Rydian]

Irrelevent. dsx86 only emulates the 80186 CPU, Win 95 requires minimum of a 80386 to run, I doubt the DS is fast enough to emulate that.

Actually it emulates an 80286 without protected mode, and if you check the updates he's working on the DSTwo port to support the 386, and he says maybe the 486, though he says the 386 is his definite goal.

 

[0ddity]

Ok, so maybe, after he updates dsx86 to emulate a 386, if you have a dstwo, you might get Win 95 running, really slow.

 

[livetek]

, you might get Win 95 running, really slow.

Same as PSP ...

 

[T3GZdev]

so is this possible now?

 

[The Catboy]

so is this possible now?

Nope.
But your can emulate Windows 3.0a